NAGMAYATEN, CAGAYAN:

AN ANALYSIS ON THE STATE OF CAGAYAN PROVINCE DURING MARTIAL

LAW (1972-1986)

Jose Albert A. Sabiniano

Prof. Laurence Marvin Castillo, Ph.D.

PS21 - Wika, Kultura, at Panitikan sa Panahon ng Batas Militar

JANUARY 2023
 INTRODUCTION
For the past 50 years, we have constantly remained to remember and resist to forget
the inhumane tortures and injustices during the reign of the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., in
our country. In this course, PS21, we have read and discussed the different fields of wika,
panitikan, and kultura during the “Golden Era”. We have discussed the different forms or
ways on how people contributed in the #NeverForget movement as well as the various faces
of how individuals continue to educate the masses about what happened to Martial Law.

We are continuously learning and grieving about what happened during the darkest
era of our country. We will continue to remember the 70,000 detainees, 34,000 tortured
people, and 3,200 killed by the hands of the military men according to Amnesty
International’s report (Bicker). As we pursue to fight for justice for the victims of martial law
before, we are repeatedly being tormented with the opposing side. While the progressive
movement continues to seek creative solutions and discourses in the matter, the opposing side
uses their powerful mechanism of manipulating and disorienting information to their
advantage.

With regards to the creative contributions that sparked and continuously being used to
start discourses, we have seen multiple movies and short stories written and published by
known directors, writers, and even some of the victims of martial law. While we continue to
treasure and uphold the ideologies and fight of making these creative remarks available to the
public, they only cover a limited perspective and area. Most of these movies are centered
around the metro while other perspectives such as the Ilocano or the Northern Regions and
Southern Tagalog movement have little to none exposure.

With this, this paper aims to discuss the state of the Northern Provinces specifically
Cagayan Province during Martial Law. This paper will tackle the different infrastructures
erected, the economic development in the province, as well as the other changes that
happened in the province from 1965 to 1986. Other than this, this paper will also attempt to
discuss the relationship between the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley as two largest Ilocano
regions in the country.

Studying the different impacts of Martial Law in each province will be beneficial for
understanding martial law at the micro-level. This could also start researching more about
each province’s condition during the said period. Aside from this, new stories could be
unraveled and used in representing the different situations of each province in the country
during martial law.

However, this paper will only use references published online by writers and
publicists. These references may be more objective rather than subjective compared to
interviewing people concerned with the topic. Other sources of information such as
interviewing, focus group discussions, and the like were not able to be utilized in making the
study. This paper may only contain figures and statements published already related to the
topic.

In summary, this paper will tackle the situation of Cagayan Province during Martial
law in three main perspectives, infrastructures, economic development, and the other changes
in the province. This paper will only focus on published articles rather than interviewing the
residents who personally lived during that time.
 DISCUSSION
The Ilokandia Ideology
The Marcoses have been using their roots as Ilocanos to seep through the minds of the
voters. In the article of Presto, a big portion of the votes got by Bongbong Marcos in the
Vice-presidential elections came from Northern Luzon while Imee Marcos came in first in the
Ilocos and Cordillera Administrative Region during their senatorial election of the same year.
In the just concluded Presidential Elections 2022, BBM got a total of 556,613 (72.66 percent)
votes in Cagayan making Cagayan Valley one of the top voters of PBBM in the 2022 national
elections.

Figure 1. BBM leads the presidential elections in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, and
Cordillera Region with 71.84 percent, 69.4 percent, and 69.29 percent of total votes
according to the data from “Eleksyon 2022: GMA News Online.”.
 With these results, arguably we could say that the Marcoses have set an effective
mechanism to keep their Ilocano roots as one of their weapons in winning elections. In the
perspective of an Ilocano, it would be great to be ‘represented’ in the national government.
This is in relation to the stereotype that Ilocanos are #SolidNorth and Marcos Loyalists. In the
article of Prof. Aquino of University of Hawai’i, she cited the work of Ruben Alcantara
(1981) in stereotyping the Ilocanos as “hard-worker, frugal, simple, loyal, and clannish”. The
loyalty and clannishness of Ilocanos towards the Marcoses have been undeniably strong
which led to the reelection of a new Marcos president to sit in Malacañang once again.

Changes in Cagayan during Martial Law

In Cagayan, there have been narratives of Martial law era being the “Golden Age”
wherein the life of the people have been developing and most of them are disciplined. Most
of the older generation preferred the implementation of Martial law because of this.

Figure 2. The table shows the general poverty rate of the Philippines from 1965 (first time in
power of Marcos), 1971 (declaration of martial law), 1975 (middle of martial law), and 1985
(before EDSA revolution) from “Martial Law in Data”.

The primary changes or developments during the martial law in Cagayan revolved
around the poverty rate of the Region. Based on Martial Law Museum (n.d.), there has been a
general increase in the poverty rate in the Philippines while Bicol has been greatly affected
during martial law. However, the two Ilocano regions, Ilocos and Cagayan Valley are the only
regions which drastically decreased their poverty rate from 1965 to 1985. Cagayan Valley had
the poverty rate of 67.6 in 1965 and dropped to 55.7 in 1985 with a total of 11.9 drop. This
could justify the reason why most of the older Cagayanos prefer Marcos Sr.’s administration
before.

However, this does not justify the fact that most regions of the country have been
suffering and continuously being drowned in the inflation and the nonstop hunt for activists
and protesters. We cannot deny the fact that the Ilocanos’s loyalty to this drastic change and
20 years of “better life” is what the Filipinos today want and made them vote for BBM last
May.

Infrastructures erected in Cagayan during Martial Law

The traditional lens of “development” is tangible and economic development. In this
lens, development is equated to the most number of infrastructures built, bridges erected, or
buildings constructed. This is the most common lens in which people view development. In
the reign of the dictator, Marcos Sr., numerous infrastructure projects have been constructed
in Cagayan. Some of which include the renowned state college in Cagayan, Cagayan State
University, the connecting bridge of Buntun and Solana, Buntun Bridge, and the infamous
“first suspension bridge in Asia”, Magapit Bridge.

During the PS21 class, there was an activity to cite fake news surrounding the
internet. I looked locally in Cagayan and found out that Magapit Bridge was not the “first
suspension bridge in Asia” as per endorsed and known in the official pamphlets of Provincial
Tourism Office of Cagayan.

In the discussion of Ar. Manuel Maximo Lopez del Castillo-Noche in ICOMOS

Philippines wherein he talked about the erection of the different suspension bridges in the
country, it could be read that there have been numerous suspension bridges ever erected in the
country. It is to be noted that Magapit Bridge was not the first suspension bridge in Asia let
alone in the Philippines but rather another ploy of the Marcoses to hold authority and prestige
over their work in the government. The first suspension bridge that was erected was the
Puente de Colgante (for some article it is Puente Colgante) in 1852. It was believed to be
used to model the Philippines to be the Paris of the Orient.
 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
Cagayan has been one of the most supportive provinces of the Marcoses. Linking
Ilocano Cagayanos with the Ilocano blood of the Marcoses as well as the greatness of living
the province experienced during the dictatorship. With the gathered data and based on the
discussion, we could say that the Province of Cagayan is one of the most fortunate and
favorable provinces of the Marcoses. Based on the numbers, Cagayanos truly enjoyed the
implementation of Martial Law in the country.

With the win of another Marcos in the national government, the province of Cagayan
is highly anticipating the “return of investment” from the political support and campaigning
of Marcos in the province for the past national campaign.

Recommendation
To further deepen our understanding with the situation of Cagayan Province during
the Martial Law, it is recommended that the succeeding researchers should interview
Cagayanos who experienced Martial in 1972-1986. An anecdote of the experiences from
these Cagayanos could give more clarity and visualization of the state of the province then. It
could also spark other relevant discussions to be discussed about Martial Law.
 REFERENCES

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Torture.” BBC News, BBC, 28 Sept. 2022,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63056898.
del Castillo-Noche, Manuel Maximo Lopez. “Bridge over Not so Troubled Waters: Spanning
Communities and Building Relationships.” ICOMOS Philippines, 5 Apr. 2006,
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